432 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM. 



The female wants the crest and the elongated tail feathers 

 of the male, and has the whole top and back of the head, in- 

 cluding the somewhat elongated bristly feathers of the lower part 

 of the occiput and nape, and the back of the neck, speckled 

 and narrowly barred greyish, or sometimes fulvous white and 

 blackish dusky ; the chin and throat and sides of the head 

 and front of the neck, as in the male, bare or nearly so, with 

 sparse white hair-like feathers; the base of the neck all round 

 deep ferruginous, altogether unmarked, or a little freckled and 

 marked with zig-zag black lines ; breast and upper abdomen 

 ferruginous, more or less orange, aud becoming yellower on the 

 abdomen, everywhere extremely closely vermicilated with 

 zig-zagy black lines ; lower abdomen, tibial plumes, and flanks, 

 a dusky greyish brown very finely, and on the lower abdomen 

 and vent obsoletely, vermicilated with pale reddish brown ; 

 lower tail-coverts dark brown, finely speckled and vermicilated 

 with pale rusty ; winglet and primaries deep chestnut, irregular- 

 ly variegated with black lines and spots ; upper back like the 

 breast, but the black markings rather more preponderant ; 

 secondaries, tertiaries, and wing-coverts black, comparatively 

 coarsely banded or variegated with bright buff bands ; pretty 

 uniform in breadth, but varying altogether in length and 

 shape, sometimes reduced to mere spots, sometimes assuming 

 most complicated hieroglyphic forms ; the whole of the middle 

 and lower back, rump, and upper tail -coverts banded black 

 and irregular freckly speckly spotted bars, varying in different 

 specimens from deep ferruginous buff to almost buffy white ; 

 the markings at the upper edge of each of these bands being 

 coarse aud sparse, and growing fine and speckly towards the 

 lower edge ; tail and longest upper tail-coverts irregularly, but 

 closely, marked with ferruginous buff or dull ferruginous. 



803 quat.— Polyplectron thibetanum, Gm., (2). Male, 

 Descr. S. F. } V., 40. 



Mooleyit. 



Confined to the forests in or near the easternmost hills of the 

 northern aud central portions of the province. 



[I have only seen this Peacock Pheasant in a wild state 

 some three or four times, and then always singly, keeping to 

 the densest portions of the forest. It is apparently very shy, 

 and almost impossible to flush, except with the aid of dogs ; 

 it has a very harsh call, sounding like a short double bark. 

 Those I shot had eaten some hard black seeds, and some ants 

 and other insects. It keeps only to the forests of the hills, 

 never, I believe, wandering into the opeu. It certainly occurs, 



